Time to annex Camelot II

Express-News Editorial Board

Published
4:49 pm CDT, Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Garbage is collected in the Camelot II neighborhood. An annexation plan, in which the city of Converse will take over a swath of Camelot, will solve that area’s trash collection problem. Garbage collection had been occurring as part of a pilot program with the city of San Antonio. less

Garbage is collected in the Camelot II neighborhood. An annexation plan, in which the city of Converse will take over a swath of Camelot, will solve that area’s trash collection problem. Garbage collection ... more

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

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Garbage is collected in the Camelot II neighborhood. An annexation plan, in which the city of Converse will take over a swath of Camelot, will solve that area’s trash collection problem. Garbage collection had been occurring as part of a pilot program with the city of San Antonio. less

Garbage is collected in the Camelot II neighborhood. An annexation plan, in which the city of Converse will take over a swath of Camelot, will solve that area’s trash collection problem. Garbage collection ... more

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

Time to annex Camelot II

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We’ve hit the six-month anniversary of the trash service pilot program in Camelot II. The clear and clean alleys in the Northeast Side neighborhood, long blanketed in trash, are evidence enough of success. But the neighborhood clearly needs more attention in the form of services. This can be done only through city annexation, which would go a long way toward addressing ongoing crime and code concerns in the area.

Better policing, streetlights and code enforcement would all come with city annexation, a must for this part of town. Those are the kinds of basic services that many people take for granted but are fundamental to a community. Trash was an obvious place to start in Camelot II — the mounds of garbage were oppressive and a public health hazard. But it was a symptom of much deeper issues. The pilot program should not mark the end of the story.

This is best reflected in statistics from Bexar County. Since the San Antonio-Bexar County pilot program began, dumping incidents are down in Camelot II. So, too, are environmental complaints. But law-and-order calls to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office are up, and this speaks to those underlying fundamental challenges that come from a history of neglect.

Perhaps the best symbol of this is a ghastly abandoned townhome in the heart of the neighborhood. It’s where the owner was murdered in February 2011, and a fire has heavily damaged the structure. The property is a magnet for squatters and has long been filled with trash and junk.

The neighborhood is also dominated by a handful of landlords who have been indifferent to the mounds of trash that once piled up in Camelot II.

Camelot II is a bureaucratic no-man’s land. It’s not in the city, but that’s really a technicality. It is surrounded by the city on two sides and is in San Antonio’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. That distinction has served as an excuse for inaction.

Let’s not let the success of the Camelot II pilot program become another excuse for inaction. It’s been helpful but is not nearly enough. Next session, the community’s legislative delegation needs to aggressively push for Bexar County to gain the authority to require trash service and the ability to hold landlords accountable.

San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor has been noncommittal about annexing Camelot II and nearby neighborhoods, saying the cost to serve the area is a concern. This is understandable. It is a concern. But a better approach would be for Taylor to commit to annexing this area and then use the greater annexation plan to balance those costs. Commit and then fight to find a way to do it.

Yes, it will cost taxpayers to annex this long-ignored part of our community, but so does inaction.